Posted on 03/17/2024 9:04:23 AM PDT by CFW
In 2022, Seattle's City Council passed an ordinance mandating a minimum earnings floor for app-based food delivery drivers in the city. The law finally went into effect in January 2024, but so far the main result has been customers deleting their delivery apps en masse, food orders plummeting, and driver pay cratering.
The ordinance, part of a legislative package called "PayUp," was passed under the banner of protecting gig workers. By setting a compensation floor for app-based delivery drivers based on miles driven and amount of time worked, the ordinance operates as a (supremely complicated) minimum wage.
The wage floor is based on labyrinthine calculations: the "engaged minutes" for drivers are multiplied by a "minimum wage equivalent rate," which is then multiplied again by an "associated cost factor" and then multiplied yet again by an "associated time factor."
[snip]
Heralded as a "first-of-its-kind" legislative breakthrough when it passed, the first two months of the ordinance's operation have provided a grim real-world Economics 101 lesson. First, the delivery companies were forced to add a $5 fee onto delivery orders in the city to cover the sudden labor cost increase. On cue, news stories started popping up of $26 coffees, $32 sandwiches, and $35 Wingstop orders in which taxes and the new fee comprised nearly 30 percent of the total
[snip]
Meanwhile, the president of the City Council claims she is "very worried" about the ordinance's impacts so far—and even argues that "it's not the role of policymakers to regulate the profit margins of companies"—before going on to say "I'm not going to redo the whole legislation."
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
The wage floor is based on labyrinthine calculations: the "engaged minutes" for drivers are multiplied by a "minimum wage equivalent rate," which is then multiplied again by an "associated cost factor" and then multiplied yet again by an "associated time factor."
^^^How are they supposed to pay the accountants to compute and report this?^^^
F- Seattlites. Let ‘em walk in the rain.
Liberal disasters make the Liberals feel good about their supposed good intentions and everyone else feel bad. And the people responsible for the disaster always pay no price.
Exactly. You have to pay for the convenience of delivery. That said, the commies in Seattle just keep making things worse and worse.
To this City Council: “No soup for you!”
Maybe people are just afraid to go out for incidentals these days due to the random street crime and prefer to pay someone to bring fast food to their doors now?
-PJ
The ignorance of the Left is just astounding. They always forget that the real minimum wage is zero and try as they might, they cant control what people choose to do.
Leftards are morons dealing with economic matters and they never learn. The fruit of their rotten and ignorant agendas drives away business time and time again yet they press on with their madness.
A while back I came across an old adage which in so many words stated “A country cannot tax itself into prosperity” Apparently wisdom is not a strong side of our politicians and for most, especially the ones of today it never was. So the down hill slide continues.
At least, it looks like the law didn’t affect grocery delivery prices. It’s bad enough that the cost of groceries has gone up so high since Biden ruined our economy. It seems ridiculous that those drivers are getting more to pick up and deliver a hamburger, than we pay for the shopping, bagging and delivery of twenty bags of groceries.
Now you've alerted TPTB in Seattle of yet ANOTHER disparity that MUST be corrected!
and SOON!
One might imagine that progressive politicians would be quick to repeal a law that hurts workers, noncorporate local businesses, and the elderly and disabled all at the same time, but Seattle’s government officials are busy either doubling down or dissembling.
“A while back I came across an old adage which in so many words stated “A country cannot tax itself into prosperity” “
Which is exactly what so many states and cities are trying to do. And, the federal government has jumped on that bandwagon as well. At some point, the people will just stop paying taxes altogether.
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